“Bikes Mean Business” was the theme of the just-wrapped National Bike Summit in Washington D.C. And on the heels of the highly successful summit, two of the world’s biggest business centers have released plans to spark huge growth in cycling.
London’s Mayor Boris Johnson has announced a $1.4 billion bicycle-infrastructure plan, designed to connect much of the city by bike and, in turn, reduce automobile traffic and congestion.
And now New York City’s Department of Transportation has released a report called Measuring the City (PDF), which details many reasons why the business community should be clamoring and lobbying for more bicycles, more bike lanes, more bike parking, more walkable sidewalks, more transit connections, and – believe it or not – probably fewer parking spots.
Some of the New York City report’s highlights are valuable to the work Mobility Lab is doing to quantify the return-on-investment business payoff that awaits jurisdictions who successfully implement transportation-oriented development and transportation demand management. The highlights, as noted by Streetsblog, include:
- Businesses along Fordham Road in the Bronx got a 73 percent boost in retail sales (compared to 23 percent borough-wide) when Select Bus Service was added. This project removed some curbside parking and moved parking meters to side streets, which was not a popular plan by business leaders along the strip, but the 10 percent increase in bus ridership and subsequent increase in pedestrians who stop to shop is keeping those same retailers pretty quiet now.
- One of the first stretches of protected bike lane added in New York City – on Ninth Avenue between 23rd and 31st streets (see the graphic below) – retail sales increased 49 percent, compared to a 3 percent increase throughout Manhattan.
- Since a major expansion of pedestrian space on the north end of Union Square, commercial vacancies have dropped 49 percent, at the same time that they have risen 5 percent borough-wide.
- Since creating Brooklyn’s pedestrianized Pearl Street plaza, retail sales increased 172 percent compared to 18 percent borough-wide.
Photos from NYC DOT’s Measuring the Street